Who is after whom ?

Lord Vetinari

Spotted what I thought was a rather stupid small Ichneumon wasp walking about just underneath the orbweb of an Araniella sp. spider. Took a couple of low power shots and then just as I was changing the magnification on the lens, there was a flurry of activity which I only managed to capture one half decent shot of, before the wasp flew off and the spider did an emergency bail out and ended up several inches below the web on an emergency thread.
I initially thought ok the spider missed the wasp but looking at #2 the wasp actually looks like it's in an egg laying postion and there is a "tube" near the spider. I suspect in fact the wasp may be one of the polysphinctus sp. wasps that actually lay an egg externally on araniella sp spiders. Last shot is an old shot of one of these spiders caryying the external parasite larva.

Brian V.

ritewinger

Great shots, especially the last. Us Earthers sometimes think the "Alien" types are from some other world. Glad these guys aren't as big as horses....

Lord Vetinari

ritewinger wrote: »

Great shots, especially the last. Us Earthers sometimes think the "Alien" types are from some other world. Glad these guys aren't as big as horses....

Thanks for the comments- there are some weird and horrible behaviours in the bug world.
Brian V.

Wicked_Dark

Awww, poor girl. I know a wasp's gotta eat, but I agree with Darwin on this particular adaptation.
Great job adapting to the changing situation and getting in there.

Lord Vetinari

Wicked_Dark wrote: »

Awww, poor girl. I know a wasp's gotta eat, but I agree with Darwin on this particular adaptation.
Great job adapting to the changing situation and getting in there.

Thanks WD.
Turns out it was simply a braconid wasp being stupid. Apparently they will use their ovipositor if attacked.
Brian V.

Wicked_Dark

mystery solved!

GOLDENORFE

good finds Brian